We (yes, I ‘forced’ my PinC to solve your puzzle after we’d finished the Pasquale all too quickly – in a nice way (the forcing, I mean)) enjoyed your brainchild. But I am not sure she fully liked it as much as I did.
On the other hand she knew all these barkers …

We failed on Mr PONZI.
ZI[p] could easily have been NI[l], leading to another mafioso.

Thanks Neo, and can we please have a puzzle on different kind of baskets [courtesy of Conrad Cork, @1]?

]]>By: Neohttp://www.fifteensquared.net/2011/07/28/financial-times-no-13757-by-neo/#comment-166279
Fri, 29 Jul 2011 19:43:38 +0000http://fifteensquared.net/?p=32249#comment-166279Well, how would you know if you ‘didn’t persevere’ with the puzzle, Richard C? I don’t mind negative feedback – it’s just as necessary as the good stuff – but for comments to carry any weight (with me, at least), their authors really do need to roll up their sleeves and get stuck in.

Re the constructive remarks, A = ‘a film certified for viewing by anyone’ according to Collins, so I’ll go with that. Re Droopy, his name is either ‘Poodle’ or ‘McPoodle’ in any case, which allows for the definition I used, and in the Wiki entry I read (which has changed: at the time I remember being amazed myself to find that Droopy is NOT a Basset Hound) he was said to be a poodle. And finally, yes, the Tiger Woods ref is meant to allude to the possibility that he MIGHT have strayed from the true course of negritude, hence the QM, and who am I to question, etc.

Thanks to almost all who replied to the blog, and many thanks indeed to Ringo, who correctly identified the puzzle as one written for the audience principally associated with the host publication, rather than, say, the denizens of (nonetheless esteemed) 15/2.

I thought 2 the cleverest clue, referring I’m sure to Tiger Woods. Whether he would agree that he’s forsaken his black identity I don’t know, but I also took “frolicking in an unclothed situation” as a jokey allusion to his recent troubles, but perhaps that’s just my mind…